The Origins of Shōjo Manga

The protagonist Sapphire, who possesses both a “girl’s heart” and a “boy’s heart” and is born as a girl yet raised as a prince, appears to have been strongly influenced by Takarazuka theater* and is regarded as a precursor to the “crossdressing girl” character trope in “Shōjo” manga.

*Takarazuka theater: A form of musical theater by the Takarazuka Revue, a troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, and composed of only unmarried females. The ideal male figure for women is projected onto the male roles, as they are depicted in “Shōjo” manga.

However, in terms of both “‘Shōjo’ manga with a storyline” and “crossdressing girl” characters, there are plenty of other pioneering works besides this one. We must not forget that “Ribon no Kishi” was created in the context of numerous other similar works.

Works by female manga artists active in the 1950s:
“Fuichin-san” by Toshiko Ueda

Toshiko Ueda, who began her career as a manga artist before WWII under the instruction of Katsuji Matsumoto, can be called a pioneering female manga artist. A detailed account of Ueda’s life can be found in the biographical manga “Fuichin Tsaichen!” [Rediscovering Fuichin!] by Motoka Murakami. Ueda’s iconic work “Fuichin-san,” which was serialized in “Shōjo Club,” draws from her experiences in Manchuria* to create a detailed portrait of life there.

*The former geographic name of China’s northeast region. Japan occupied the region in 1932 and founded the state of Manchukuo, but it was returned to China after WWII.

Protagonist Fuichin’s outgoing, straightforward demeanor and lively exploits are reminiscent of Astrid Lindgren’s “Pippi Longstocking” and other classics of children’s literature.

“Chako-chan no Nikki” (Chako-chan’s Diary) by Yoko Imamura

“Chako-chan no Nikki” is the debut work of Yoko Imamura, who made her debut as a manga artist in her teens while assisting her father Tsutomu Imamura, a rental manga artist. The character Chako-chan, who first appeared in “Shōjo” (Kobunsha) in 1959, was subsequently utilized in “Ribon” and grade school magazines published by Shogakukan Inc.

When the manga was first serialized in “Shōjo,” depicting the love life of a real-to-life girl was uncommon—and in this context, “Chako-chan” offered a lighthearted portrayal of girls’ curiosity about boys. The work was ahead of its time in offering content that responded to the interests of its female readers, no doubt largely due to the fact that it began as a project to convert readers’ personal experiences into manga.

Inheriting the tradition of lyrical painting, his female figures had big eyes and slender proportions. They were also portrayed in the form of “fashion illustrations,” large drawings of beautifully dressed figures removed from the story panels. The new territory opened up by Takahashi’s non-manga-like manga eventually reaches fruition as a style unique to “Shōjo” manga.

“Emiko Story” by Shotaro Ishinomori

The “Shōjo” manga world today is centered around female artists, but in the 1950s, male manga artists created most of the manga, even those in “Shōjo” magazines. One such artist was Shotaro Ishinomori. His works in “Shōjo Club” are noteworthy for their experimental nature, as seen in Ishinomori’s conscious efforts to innovate manga as a genre of expression.

In “Emiko Story,” his last serialized work for the magazine, this experimentation is visible in the way in which he uses words to express his thoughts from the heart. By portraying the protagonist writing a composition, the final episode asks, “What is happiness?” This is a scene of introspection by the protagonist, but it is simultaneously a summarization of “Shōjo” manga by Ishinomori himself.

“Yuka wo Yobu Umi” (The Sea That Calls Yuka) by Tetsuya Chiba

“Yuka wo Yobu Umi” depicts a girl who slaps the boys that tease her. Although the series gained popularity for its use of an active female protagonist never before seen in “Shōjo” manga, it is also indispensable in the history of expression in “Shōjo” manga for its unique style of monologue.

The opening scenes of this work are often used to provide a recap of the story so far, which it does in the form of a monologue by the protagonist Yuka. These monologues are presented in an ambiguous manner that seems to both speak directly to the reader and also show Yuka reflecting on her own past. Since the purpose of these monologues is only to provide a “synopsis” of the plot, they have unfortunately been cut out of the standalone book version of the manga.

“Maki no Kuchibue” (Maki’s Whistle) by Miyako Maki

“Maki no Kuchibue,” a popular work serialized in “Ribon,” is a drama that revolves around the protagonist Maki, a young girl who aspires to become a ballerina and missed encounters with her long-separated mother. Tear-jerking mother-child stories were a staple of “Shōjo” manga at the time, but the beautiful figure of the girl drawn by Miyako Maki clearly stood out from other manga that came before it.

Her image of the young girl took the world by storm and is also known to have served as the model for the Licca-chan dress-up doll that became popular in Japan.

The popularity of her look is evidenced by the fact that there was actually a promotion in which the costume worn by the protagonist Maki, called “Maki-chan style,” was given away to readers.

“Honey Honey no Sutekina Bōken” (Honey Honey’s Wonderful Adventures) by Hideko Mizuno

An apartment building called Tokiwa-sō housed many of Japan’s pioneering manga artists, including Osamu Tezuka, Fujiko Fujio, Shotaro Ishinomori, and Fujio Akatsuka. The sole female manga artist who resided there was Hideko Mizuno. In the 1960s, Mizuno paved the way for stories of romance between boys and girls, still considered a taboo subject in “Shōjo” manga at the time, in the form of a comedy reminiscent of foreign romance movies.

“Honey Honey no Sutekina Bōken” was a compilation of such comical romance stories, portraying romantic rivalry set all over the world in a lighthearted style. These initial love stories by Mizuno and other artists came to be depicted in more familiar and everyday settings and eventually became mainstream in “Shōjo” manga.